On November 5, 1912, Oregon became the seventh state to permit women to vote. Theamendment to the Oregon Constitution, passed by ballot initiative, was largely the result of decades of advocacy by Abigail Scott Duniway, who founded a weekly newspaper, The New Northwest, in part to promote voting rights for women. The National Women’s Suffrage Association recognized Duniway as a leading women’s advocate in the American West in 1886.

Women became eligible to run for the state legislature in 1914 and within a year, women had won seats in both its houses.